When someone is asked about the problems faced by hospitals and health systems, patient misidentification would be the last thing someone would mention. After all, how can someone misidentify a patient? It is supposed to be a very rare thing, apparently. However, the reality is quite different in the US healthcare system. Patient misidentification is quite common and is one of the crucial issues that constantly hamper patient outcomes. In fact, even during the COVID-19 pandemic, many healthcare providers and frontline teams have reported severe issues that hampered patient outcomes. Moreover, a lot of issues can be associated with patient identification errors.

Let’s take a look at patient misidentification, why it’s so common in the US healthcare system, and what are the top benefits of preventing it, and how innovative solutions can ensure positive patient identification at any touchpoint across a hospital.

Patient identification errors explained

Well, while it’s quite self-explanatory from the name itself, patient misidentification still warrants a brief explanation.

What is it?

Patient identification errors usually occur when the healthcare staff member (usually a registrar) associates a wrong EHR (electronic health record) with a patient.

Where does it happen?

These misidentifications occur on the front-end and during registration typically, at registration desks or in ERs (emergency rooms). However, if an effective patient identification solution isn’t used across all the touchpoints, the misidentification may happen elsewhere too, for instance, after a surgery.

Why does it happen?

There are various reasons why patient identification errors occur. However, the most prominent reason is that there is no national patient identifier present that can be used across hospitals – more on that later.

Patient identification issues arise because of duplicate medical records present within the EHR system, common patient names or demographic characteristics, and limited search functionalities. Add to that the thousands of medical records present, it would be quite problematic for registrars to identify the accurate medical record without an effective identifier in place.

For instance, a patient called William Johnson comes up, but presents his name as “Bill Johnson”. No matter how advanced the EHR is, finding out the correct record will take either a lot of time, or else, the registrar will create a new record, hence, another duplicate in the system. Also, there are probably hundreds of Bill Johnsons present in the EHR system – registrars have a hard time identifying such patients’ records.

Why are patient identification errors so common?

Well, as previously mentioned, patient identification issues have been around for decades, so much so that healthcare experts frequently talk about it, and even reputed organizations have made it their mission to eliminate such issues. But why do they need to do so in the first place? With all the technological advancements the US has, shouldn’t there be an effective patient identifier already?

The mythical UPI

Whenever patient identification issues come up, the term UPI is heard often alongside it. It is a unique patient identifier that was supposed to be funded by the state and provided to the healthcare providers. However, a certain bill restricts the funding of the UPI that is desperately needed to ensure patient safety and improve healthcare outcomes. As a result, healthcare providers don’t have an effective and standardized patient identifier to use.

How are healthcare providers coping with it?

Well, patient identification issues, as it should be clear by now, are quite common and faced by most healthcare providers. Detrimental healthcare outcomes, patient mix-ups, delayed care, among other issues, are just a few of the consequences.

The caregivers that struggle with patient identification issues have been clamoring for abolishing the ban on the state-funded UPI so that they can identify patients accurately and enhance patient matching across the care continuum. However, it’s been around twenty years, and the ban is still in place.

While the UPI’s future is still uncertain, let’s take a look at the top benefits of preventing patient misidentification within healthcare facilities.

Top benefits of preventing patient misidentification

It reduces duplicate medical records and overlays

Medical record errors such as duplicate medical records and overlays have always been quite problematic and lead to patient misidentification. Moreover, these errors occur due to misidentification as well.

If an accurate and effective patient identifier is in place, then it will help prevent misidentification, as it will choose the accurate medical records and not the duplicate or overlaid ones. This will also help eliminate the creation of new duplicates – ensuring consistency.

It prevents medical errors

Many medical errors are occurring every day, leading to unwanted healthcare outcomes, wrong surgeries, delayed care, readmissions, and even deaths. Many medical errors are preventable via accurate patient identification.

By identifying the accurate medical record right from the start, caregivers can ensure that accurate patient data is used across the care continuum, preventing any medical errors and unwanted outcomes.

It ensures patient safety

It should be clear by now that patient identification is instrumental in enhancing patient safety – it improves healthcare outcomes by using the accurate medical record for the patient’s treatment.

It ensures patient data integrity

Patient data corruption occurs when the data is no longer accurate, meaningful, and consistent. Patient misidentification usually corrupts it by mixing the data of two or more patients, leading to overlays.

Fortunately, an effective patient identification platform can protect patient information and ensure integrity by incorporating information about the accurate patient only and preventing errors like duplicates and overlays.

It reduces denied claims

Patient identification issues also have financial implications on healthcare providers, more profoundly, on the revenue cycle. For instance, if a patient is misidentified on the front-end, arising from either a duplicate record or a mix-up, after sending the claim to the payer, the latter will deny the claim due to the error. This will ultimately hamper the financials of the hospital, as denied claims eat away significant portions of the revenue.

However, if patient identification can be ensured accurately at the front-end, healthcare providers can save a significant amount of money, boost their bottom lines, and optimize their revenue cycles.

It even prevents medical identity theft

Many fraudsters simply get to commit medical identity theft because there’s no effective patient identifier in place. Fraudsters have the patients’ information, and without an effective patient identifier, they get to access healthcare services fraudulently.

An effective patient identifier will be able to prevent medical identity theft by verifying patients’ identities to see if they are who they claim to be.

Different caregivers are using different methods, platforms, and solutions to identify their patients. However, the most effective and feasible one currently is RightPatient.

RightPatient ticks all the right boxes and ensures patient identification

RightPatient is a touchless biometric patient identification platform that utilizes the aspect that cannot be transferred, stolen, lost, or forged – patients’ faces. It locks patients’ medical records with their photos during registration and provides accurate medical records after verification.

Patients are required to provide a selfie as well as a photo of their driver’s license after scheduling appointments. RightPatient automatically compares the photos for a match, remotely authenticating patients.

Within hospitals, all that is required by the patient is to look at the camera – the platform compares the saved photo with the live one, ensuring accurate patient identification safely and hygienically.

Moreover, the platform is versatile enough to be used across any touchpoint within the facility, reducing patient identification errors, and enhancing patient safety along the way.